What is the difference between char and varchar data types in PHP?

Question

what is the difference between char , varchar and nvarchar in sql?

Answer 1

PHP does not have a concept of variable type, I am assuming that your query is about the MySQL CHAR/VARCHAR variable.

CHAR is a fixed length data type. CHAR(100) will take 100 characters of storage even if you enter less than 100 characters to that column.

VARCHAR is a variable length data type. VARCHAR(100) will take only the required storage for the actual number of characters entered to that column. For example, "QueryHome" will be stored as "QueryHome" in VARCHAR(100) column and will occupy 8 bytes in storage (loosely saying).

Answer 2

CHAR

Used to store character string value of fixed length.

The maximum no. of characters the data type can hold is 255 characters.

It's 50% faster than VARCHAR.

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VARCHAR

Used to store variable length alphanumeric data.

The maximum this data type can hold is up to 4000 characters.

Slow in speed

As it is dynamic memory allocation type, variable length varies according to the requirement of the user.
Means user can enter more than 400 values even if the size is less according to it.

Answer 3

Char is a fixed data type which occupies the full space irrespective of the characters entered into that particular column(or variable).
Whereas Varchar is a data type of variable length which adjusts itself automatically according to the characters entered into the column.

Answer 4

CHAR is a fixed length data type. CHAR(n) will take n characters of storage even if you enter less than n characters to that column. For example, "Hello!" will be stored as "Hello! " in CHAR(10) column.

VARCHAR is a variable length data type. VARCHAR(n) will take only the required storage for the actual number of characters entered to that column. For example, "Hello!" will be stored as "Hello!" in VARCHAR(10) column.